Our project goals are:

To offer quality residential care to children with HIV/AIDS, including:

• Palliative care to terminally ill children.
• Respite care for children who are acutely ill.
• Residential care for chronically ill abandoned babies and children.
• Aggressive medical treatment for children with opportunistic infections who are not yet “end stage”.
• Antiretroviral therapy (ART) where clinically indicated.
• Educating families about HIV/AIDS and the importance of complying with the ART regime.
• Continue support to children on Antiretroviral therapy (ART) when discharged from Hospice through the home base care service.

The hospice was established in 2003 out of the need to provide institutional care for children in an under resourced area and where the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is above the Western Cape provincial averge rate of 22%.

Since we have opened our role in supporting and strengthening HIV/AIDS service providers in the Helderberg region has grown. Cotlands is the only service provider in this area that specializes in paediatric HIV/AIDS. Cotlands is also an emergency place of safety for children who are orphaned, abused or abandoned.

We also have a good working relationship with local home base care services, clinics, hospitals, childcare services and social services.

Cotlands offer holistic care for 26 residential children from birth to seven years who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and who cannot be cared for in the community.

This incorporates physical day to day care, ART, emotional and psychological care, social care, educational care and medical care.

Most of the children are far behind with their development and need stimulation exercises to get them back on track. With the assistance of qualified professionals we are able to help these children. The team consists of occupational therapists, social workers, doctors and physiotherapists.

Palliative care and respite care are given to children in the acute stage of their illness.

Children are kept pain free and comfortable, even during the end stages. We focus on quality of life by giving them the opportunity to live a normal life as far as possible with a warm and loving surrounding.

Cotlands:

SINCE COTLANDS OPENED, THE FACILITY HAS TAKEN IN 324 CHILDREN OF WHOM:

• 41% HIV positive;
• 39% admitted for respite care;
• 23% for TB treatment;
• 42% palliative care;
• 24% put on ARV;
• 5% children were adopted by loving families
• 31% children have been fostered;
• 35% children returned to their families;
• 68% are here as a place of safety;
• 9% of children have passed away
• 18% malnutrition

Place of Safety

We have recently opened a new Place of Safety wing in our building. Here, we will care for abandoned, abused and/or orphaned children and children on ARV until they can be reunited with their families or until alternative suitable community placements can be arranged.

These children are usually placed with us after an external social worker or police have removed a child from his/her home. In our place of safety wing, we will be able to accommodate up to 20 children from the ages of birth to 9 years.

With the opening of this new wing, our hospice can continue giving palliative and respite care to the children who have life threatening illnesses, and we can separate the children who have been brought in as a place of safety and care for them in the other wing.

All of these children receive specialised care and all receive therapy and stimulation from our social workers, physiotherapist, speech therapist and occupational therapist.

Macassar Haven

In 2005, Cotlands acquired Macassar Haven, a Place of Safety facility — about 6 km from Cotlands’ Western Cape site in Helderberg — that had been established six years previously. The original founder was ready to retire, but wanted to ensure the successful continuation of this project and Cotlands identified this as an ideal opportunity to extend our aid to vulnerable children and to consolidate our presence in the Western Cape.

The Haven cares for abandoned, abused, orphaned and/or HIV-positive children until they can be reunited with their families or until alternative suitable community placements can be arranged. Wherever possible, parents are counselled and assisted by the referring agency to overcome the difficulties that gave rise to their children’s predicament. If parents are successfully rehabilitated, their children can return home. If not, alternative community placements with loving families – either through foster care or adoption – are arranged.

Care is offered by a multidisciplinary team and extends across the full spectrum to address the medical, physical, developmental and psychosocial needs of the child. One of the Haven’s top priorities is to restore the children both physically and emotionally during their stay.

Children continue their schooling locally in Macassar, so that they do not fall behind during their placement and are encouraged to maintain contact with significant adults in their lives. The children participate in community events at the local multipurpose centre, including group outings and holiday programmes, and attend Sunday school. As well as trying to normalise their environment, we aim to limit the period of placement to no more than six months, so that the children do not struggle to re-adjust to life away from the Haven.

Macassar Haven continues to play a vital role in the community, offering a place of safety for abused and abandoned children.

Home Based Care

Our home based care programme is operated by professional nurse who follows up on children referred by Ikwezi Clinic in Nomzamo and Hottentots Holland antiretroviral (ARV) clinic that are not adhering to ARV medication.

She also supports children on ARV’s who are being cared for at Cotlands and who are later placed back into the community or into foster care.

This support also includes food parcels, clothing and toys which we give to the families.

We have 47 active volunteers involved, who have been carefully screened by the social worker. They assist with the stimulation programme; organize outings for the children, and daily chores such as feeding and bathing.

We usually have 2-3 intakes a year for volunteers who would like to become involved with Cotlands Western Cape.

We ask that volunteers give at least 2 hours a week of their time for a minimum of 1 year.

Most of our volunteers stay on longer as it is a very rewarding experience.